


When Giraffes Meet

by Fyz



Category: Steam Powered Giraffe
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-28
Updated: 2013-12-28
Packaged: 2018-01-06 10:23:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,628
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1105673
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fyz/pseuds/Fyz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Many moons ago, a challenge was issued to write a story about Steam Powered Giraffe meeting Russell the Electric Giraffe. Here is my response to this (probably) forgotten challenge.</p>
            </blockquote>





	When Giraffes Meet

The robots were excited when the invitation came through the mail. Not about the parade, but about finally getting to meet Russell the Electric Giraffe. They had all seen the robot giraffe being carted around town on their way to gigs and other things. Russell had immediately caught their attention and drawn out reminisces and comparisons with Delilah. Michael knew for a fact that The Spine had gone out on the Internet after their first sighting to find out all about Russell, his creation and his creator. He knew Spine knew that Russell was mostly just programming and not really intelligent at all, but that did not stop the tall, titanium robot from smiling with his brothers at the idea of riding Russell in the parade. In fact, Spine had once compared the robot giraffe to a large, rather dumb, but well trained pet when discussing it with Michael. The excitement seemed to be mostly because Russell was a Giraffe and did in fact, after a fashion, have a personality.

The humans had listened in as The Spine explained with extreme care just what his brothers should and should not expect from Russell. They also watched as the automatons sent letters to Kazooland to tell The Jon, Upgrade and Sam about Russell the Electric Giraffe with promises of photographs, both physical and electronic to follow.

On the day of the parade, the sky was clear and the temperature a little cool as they set out for the meet up point. There was not a lot of traffic on the road as it was still early, especially for a Saturday. Hatchworth was practically vibrating with excitement at finally getting to meet Russell. Rabbit was bouncing in his seat, eagerly chattering on about playing Brass Goggles on the back of a robot giraffe. The Spine smiled indulgently and nodded, making the right sounds and comments in all the right places to satisfy his brothers. His smile was easy and bright, without a hint of a smirk, condescension or pretense behind it. 

Steve pulled the bus into an empty parking spot and grinned as the automatons immediately piled out of the door to make a beeline for the electric giraffe. The Spine paused to look back at the humans, eyebrows quirked questioningly. Should he stay to help unload their equipment? He knew he would be the one to carry most of it up on to Russell’s back. Michael Reed grinned and waved him on. He, Matt and Steve followed more slowly, watching as Russell’s creator introduced him to the robots. The sight of Rabbit’s, Hatchworth’s and, yes, even The Spine’s delight as Russell reacted to them taking turns petting his nose was priceless and well worth getting up this early. Rabbit yanked Michael over, insisting the humans take a turn as well, which they did, only Steve protesting until Lil’ Steve insisted he got a turn as well. That was hilarious and would obviously end up on the Internet as another Lil’ Steve video gem.

Finally, Steve, Michael and Matt withdrew from the group to start getting their equipment unloaded, up on Russell’s back and setup. The Spine stepped carefully away as well, trying to not distract his brothers from cooing over the robot giraffe. Relieved to pass the heavier or larger pieces off to The Spine, it did not take very long at all to get it up on top of Russell. Portable power supplies, musical instruments and soundboard were connected with the speed of long practice. The Spine hummed to himself as he considered the space available. He would have to keep an eye on Michael, Rabbit and Hatchworth to make sure they didn’t accidentally tip themselves over the sides. He knew he could count on Matt to stay behind his drums and Steve would keep near his soundboard as well as having too much sense to jump around in the limited area. Though he would not put it past the man to parkour off when the parade was over. Speaking of which, it was time to get in place, the music parade would be starting soon. “Hey guys,” The Spine called down, “come on up!” He thanked whatever powers made blue matter that it helped to reduce the weight of their heavy chassis to something nearly reasonable as his brothers scrambled up the ladder, Lil’ Steve firmly clinging to Rabbit’s vest. Not that they weren’t still heavy, the bus’ axles were reinforced with good reason. But half a ton to a ton and a half of robot band, depending on the day, was considerably less than the well over six tons they would be without that bit of blue matter side effect. Fortunately, today seemed to be one of their lighter days as none of the ladder rungs decided to bend.

Steam Powered Giraffe was starting their fourth rendition of Brass Goggles when Russell, inexplicably, started to slow down. It had taken about 7 minutes for robots and humans to get used to the way the electric giraffe moved. It had taken 11 minutes before The Spine had to interrupt his guitar playing to yank Rabbit back from going over the edge. He glanced over to where Steve and Russell’s creator/driver were having a whispered, but intense discussion. He opened up his hearing receptors and was dismayed to find out that the giraffe was losing power for some unknown reason. The solar panels were not charging his batteries fast enough to keep him moving even at the admittedly slow speed of the parade, in spite of the clear blue sky and bright sun shining down on them. The Spine vented steam and sent a text to Steve’s cell phone. _Can you hook Russell up to me? I can boost his power._

Steve gave him a sharp look as soon as he read it and quickly texted a response. _Are you sure, big guy? That will put the strain on you. ___

_Do it. I’ll just go into stasis early tonight to recharge, like a good ‘little’ robot. Should be back at full power tomorrow._

__Steve sighed, still worried, but he knew he could count on The Spine to keep his promise and to be reasonable. If it became too much for him, Spine would say so. That was the type of automaton he was. He pulled out some power cables (because Steve was always prepared with lots of cables) and knelt down to hook up Russell. A couple of minutes later, the electric giraffe was back up to speed as The Spine’s systems hummed louder to meet the extra demand._ _

__Activity and sound caught Rabbit’s attention and he eyed his brother, one brow rising with concern. A quick exchange followed over their wireless, carefully leaving Hatchworth out so he wouldn’t become too worried or upset, the copper automaton gave a nod to his taller brother. It didn’t stop Rabbit from being concerned, but he had a focus for it. If The Spine was helping power Russell, then he simply had to make sure The Spine had plenty of power. That meant pushing a water bottle over to him at every possible moment they had to take in water. Hatchy was confused, as so many things confused him since coming out of the Vault, but he indulged his oldest brother by pulling water bottles and canteens from his hatch every chance he had to do it unobtrusively. Michael was confused about why Rabbit kept giving Spine water and Hatchworth was helping, but since The Spine kept drinking it, he shrugged it off. Maybe his boiler had a leak, he would find out after the parade. If it were bad enough, he would already know, because Spine would have said something, including full diagnostics and where it fell on a rating of one to ten, minor annoyance to full out Walter catastrophe._ _

__Finally, Russell the Electric Giraffe and Steam Powered Giraffe arrived at the endpoint for the parade. The moment they were off the street, Rabbit was by The Spine’s side, looking him over with concern in his mismatched eyes. The Spine smiled reassuringly, but was obviously tired. Once everything was explained to the other band members, Hatchworth declared his tallest brother a hero. Rabbit heartily agreed and Russell’s creator was not going to argue. The Spine had certainly saved their part of the parade, though no one else would ever know. The automatons began to cosset the titanium robot, refusing to allow him to lift a finger. While Steve went back to the starting point to get the bus, the pair carried down the band’s equipment, careful to not let anything happen while doing so. Michael ran a quick diagnostic of The Spine’s systems to make sure he was okay. The almost constant flow of water had mitigated the power drain so Spine, while exhausted, was also not ready to drop._ _

__As promised, The Spine went into stasis early, his snake form curled safely on Rabbit’s bed under the watchful eyes of Rabbit and Hatchworth, while Michael and Steve showed Matt how to boost the charge in case of an emergency to one of the automatons using his chassis for the demonstration. The next day, The Spine felt much more like himself. Pictures taken at the parade were sorted, select ones printed out and others added to a thumb drive along with video to be sent through to The Jon in Kazooland that afternoon. Everyone was relaxing when a special delivery arrived of several varieties of ice cream from Russell’s grateful creator. An ice cream parade was enjoyed by all of the inhabitants of Walter Manor. Even The Spine managed to attend without incident and enjoyed a large dish of his favorite, a just reward for his generous action._ _


End file.
